258 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



more controlled or integrated, more masters of their 

 fate, with more mentality. So progress means move- 

 ment towards certain ideals which we cherish. It is a 

 verdict based on our sense of values. There is a clue 

 here that we must hold to. Evolution on the whole is 

 integrative ; it makes against disintegration and dis- 

 order, against instability, against the entropy or degrada- 

 tion of energy which marks the inorganic. 



It has to be borne in mind that with the evolution 

 of the type there was correlated an evolution of inter- 

 relations binding lives together in a sy sterna naturcBy 

 a web of life whose pattern becomes more and more 

 significant. This external registration acted along with 

 the organismal or hereditary registration in conserving 

 evolutionary gains once made ; it was at once a condi- 

 tion and an organon of progress. The higher animal 

 was able to see more meaning in the world, but there 

 was also more meaning to discover. 



In any case, it is plain that there has been an increas- 

 ing soHdarity in Animate Nature, and much that seemed 

 at first insignificant is now known to contribute funda- 

 mentally to the stability of the super-structure in which 

 we discern progressiveness most clearly. The Kingdom 

 of Man depends on a peculiar quality of a green pigment ; 

 the vigorous life of higher animals depends on another 

 pigment ; flowers depend on insects ; fishes depend on 

 water-fleas, infusorians, and sea-dust. Even when a 

 race becomes extinct, it would be rash to say that it 

 has lived in vain. 



The critic may intervene, however, and say : "No 



