Biological Point of View 



sized; not that it is materially mistaken in its 

 facts, but that it has failed properly to appre- 

 ciate the psychological or spiritual elements of 

 civilization. As a result, it is stimulating rather 

 than repressing such evils as commercialism 

 and militarism, which are the products of the 

 inadequately harnessed animal nature of man. 

 It may also be pointed out that restraining and 

 giving direction to the aggressively selfish bio- 

 logical forces, are less obvious but mighty in- 

 fluences arising out of social activities. But 

 we shall first merely attempt to review the story 

 of human evolution as it appears from the bio- 

 logical point of view. In so doing no attempt 

 will be made to gloss over, as so often is done, 

 the naked savagery of the story. 



I. Biological Principles 



As the evolutionist looks at the matter, the 

 life process began long millenniums ago at the 

 point where in the warm oceans of the half- 

 finished earth certain atoms fell into complex 

 combinations that gave them mass and motion. 

 In some such obscure way originated the primi- 

 tive protoplasm which is the basis of all living 

 things. This primitive protoplasm as seen, for 

 example, in the relatively formless, microscopic 



