136 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



perience, and the qualities of external objects. It 

 seeks for general truth in the midst of innumerable 

 particulars. It penetrates into the secrets of Nature, 

 refusing to be checked by any limits, save the 

 conditions of its own activity. It forms its ideal of 

 human life ; it carries forward civilisation in the life 

 of a nation ; it grapples with the scheme of existence 

 as a whole, making the Universe itself its field of 

 study. Tto ^atijQnjtl power presents the problem for 

 humanity, a problem ever widening and enlarging, 

 as men seek to know more of the cosmos. 



Simply by his possession of rational power, every 

 member &quot;of the race goes forth on his way as a 

 freeman, taking possession of his inheritance in the 

 earth. For every man who does not lose his way in 

 darkness, or through blinding passion overwhelmed 

 by life s mysteries, or besotted by animal indulgences 

 -a rich possession is waiting, quite above supply of 

 the common requirements of organic life. Science is 

 his servant ; literature is his property ; philosophy is 

 his guide in higher thought ; revelation becomes his 

 inspiration. Under warrant of abundant evidence, 

 we distinguish two worlds in Nature the world of 

 matter and the world of mind; a world visible to 

 the eye ; a world invisible to organism visible only 

 to rational insight. 



Rational discrimination, moving at first in company 

 with sensible discrimination, at length parts com 

 pany with aids of sense, moving along its own path, 

 seeking the invisible, the most abiding. As the 

 range of observation and experience widens, the life 

 itself rises, ever finding as it advances a wider 

 expanse and a greater elevation. Finding within 



