368 SYMB10GENESIS 



Some such adage also applies to a race which is to be 

 fruitful in genius. We have seen that this involves more than 

 ordinary loyalty : it involves what one might term cosmic 

 loyalty, i.e., faithfulness, to the great law of Creative (or 

 Progressive) Life, which is the law of symbiogenesis. In this 

 sense what Butler says is true, that what an organism will 

 think to its advantage depends mainly on the past habits of 

 its race. 



Butler thinks that Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck 



introduce uniformity into the moral and spiritual worlds as it was 

 already beginning to be introduced into the physical. According to 

 both these writers development has ever been a matter of the same 

 energy, effort, good sense, and perseverance, as tend to advancement of 

 life now among ourselves. In essence it is neither more nor less than 

 this, as the raindrop which denuded an ancient formation is of the 

 same kind as that which is denuding a modern one, though its effect 

 may vary in geometrical ratio with the effect it has produced already. 

 As we are extending reason to the lower animals, so we must extend 

 a system of moral government by rewards and punishments no less 

 surely ; and if we admit that to some considerable extent man is man, 

 and master of his fate, we should admit also that all organic forms 

 which are saved at all have been in proportionate degree masters of 

 their fate too, and have worked out, not only their own salvation, but 

 their salvation according, in no small measure, to their own goodwill 

 and pleasure, at times with a light heart, and at times in fear and 

 trembling. I do not say that Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck saw all 

 the foregoing as clearly as it is easy to see it now; what I have said, 

 however, is only the natural development of their system. 



I have already spoken of Bio-morality, of biological 

 remuneration, of biological action and reaction, i.e., of bio- 

 logical values in connection with bio-social conduct, in the 

 light of which the above passages and many others in Butler's 

 work and those also of Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin become, 

 to my mind at least, far more intelligible. All these concep- 

 tions we have, at any rate, seen to be of the utmost practical 

 importance in sifting the grain from the chaff in the world of 

 life. I have also mentioned self-adaptation and self-pauperisa- 

 tion, which conceptions again are quite congruous with the 

 ideas here set forth bv Butler. It is clear that Erasmus Darwin 



