SUMMARY 



IN the preceding chapters we have surveyed the 

 phenomena of nature from a purely objective point of 

 view in order to discover, so far as we may, what they 

 mean for us ; whether it is for us as intelligent beings to 

 "fight the cosmic process," or to use it according to our 

 light and strength in our ow r n constructive enterprises, 

 and thereby become willing agents in its consummation. 



We have seen that the one outstanding fact which 

 now dominates the thoughts and acts of intelligent men 

 is evolution, or nature-growth, embracing alike all 

 physical, organic, mental, and social phenomena in its 

 spontaneous constructive action, and using them all 

 alike in the consummation of its creative purpose. 



That sovereign outward fact, in all its elemental 

 grandeur, is the immutable axial truth around which 

 man must orient his inward purposes and to it conform 

 his conduct rightly, or suffer self-destructive penalties. 

 It compels man to accept nature's constructive Tightness 

 as his ethical standard, and to adopt her constructive 

 methods as his moral code. It compels him to recog- 

 nize in nature-growth the expression of a creative will ; 

 it reveals to him in nature-action the way to augment 

 himself and the instrument to his salvation. His most 

 ardent desire is then to know that will the better to 

 obey it. 



A limited perspective is always confusing, for the 

 very reason that the diversity of nature-action is always 

 unified. We instinctively resent the wanton destruction 



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