A VIEW IN PERSPECTIVE. 15 1 



nificance. The development of mind, and especially 

 of the ethical * nature of man, is producing a result 

 in the human race which in a measure reverses the 

 results of the law of natural selection, and the other 

 laws governing animals. 



As we have seen, the history of the animal king- 

 dom is such as can be best explained in the form of 

 a branching tree. In accordance with the laws of 

 nature, the most important of which is the law of 

 natural selection, the descendants of any line of 

 animals gradually diverge from each other like the 

 branches of a tree. For example the descendants of 

 the early type of mammals gradually assumed dif- 

 ferent characters along different lines until there 

 was produced the abundance of mammal orders 

 found in the early Tertiary (9). The exact way in 

 which the laws of nature work to produce such a 

 divergence is a matter under discussion to-day by 

 naturalists. Darwin tried to show that his law of 

 natural selection was in itself sufficient to explain 

 this divergence. Further study makes this more 

 doubtful, or at all events requires the addition of 

 certain other factors favoring the isolation of indi- 

 viduals. But whatever be the difference in our ideas 

 of the details, there is no question that the laws of 

 nature under which animals live and multiply, result 

 in the production of what is known as divergence of 

 character. 



Now the essential feature of a divergence of char- 

 acter is isolation and separation. In some way the 



* By the development of the ethical nature we would not mean to 

 imply that conscience has been evolved from the other attributes of 

 man, but simply that since the appearance of man the ethical element 

 has developed to a higher grade. 



