INVOLUTION. 325 



ronment of its roots, the moral and social organism is 

 a material organism ; but if it is to be judged in terms 

 of the higher influences which enter into the making 

 of its stem, leaves, fruit, it is not a material organism. 

 Everything that lives, and every part of everything 

 that lives, enters into relation with different parts of 

 the Environment and with different things in the 

 Environment ; and at every step of its Ascent it com- 

 passes new ranges of the Environment, and is acted 

 upon, and acts, in different ways from those in which 

 it was acted upon, or acted, at the previous stage. 



For what is most of all essential to remember is 

 that not only is Environment the prime factor in de- 

 velopment, but that the Environment itself rises with 

 every evolution of any form of life. To regard the 

 Environment as a fixed quantity and a fixed quality 

 is, next to ignoring the altruistic factor, the cardinal 

 error of evolutional philosophy. With every step a 

 climber rises up a mountain side his Environment 

 must change. At a thousand feet the air is lighter 

 and purer than at a hundred, and as the effect varies 

 with the cause, all the reactions of the air upon his 

 body are altered at the higher level. His pulse 

 quickens ; his spirit grows more buoyant ; the en- 

 ergies of the upper world flow in upon him. All the 

 other phenomena change — the plants are Alpine, the 

 animals are a hardier race, the temperature falls, 

 the very world he left behind wears a different look. 

 At three thousand feet the causes, the effects, and 

 the phenomena change again. The horizon is wider, 

 the light intenser, the air colder, the top nearer ; 

 the nether world recedes from view. At six thousand 

 feet, if we may accentuate the illustration till it 



