378 THE CONCEPT OF EVOLUTION 



into inorganic genesis, it must also be traced forward into 

 human history, and the process regarded, as far as we can, 

 as a whole. It is a misleading abstraction '' to treat the world 

 of nature as a fact complete in itself, a system finished 

 without man. . . . Man is organic to nature, and nature 

 is organic to man. It is a false abstraction to try to take 

 the world apart from the central fact in which it so ob- 

 viously finds expression" (Pringle-Pattison, 1917, p. 177). 



SUMMARY. 



The scientific theory of evolution has suffered from a scarcity 

 of facts and a plethora of words, yet also from a dearth of words. 

 For the term ' evolution ' is used with fallacious elasticity for 

 processes of becoming in very different fields. The use of differen- 

 tial terms for the three great orders of facts may be suggested. In 

 the domain of the inorganic we study the genesis of the solar sys- 

 tem, of a range of mountains, or of precious stones. In the realm 

 of organisms we study the development (or ontogeny) of the in- 

 dividual and the evolution (or phylogeny) of the species or race. 

 In the kingdom of man we study the history of institutions, social 

 activities, and the like. 



Organic evolution differs from inorganic genesis: since organism 

 transcends mechanism; since organismal variation is quite different 

 from the ubiquitous inorganic flux (which has its analogue in age- 

 ing, dying, re-incorporation, etc.) ; and since inorganic genesis, as 

 in the making of a star, has its analogue in the individual develop- 

 ment of the organism, not in racial evolution, where much shares 

 in the process of becoming that does not figure in the final result. 



Organic evolution differs from the history of human societary 

 forms: because social variations are not restricted to the germ- 

 plasm; because the extra-organismal or social heritage bulks so 

 largely; and because there is not in the realm of organisms more 

 than a dim adumbration of deliberate selection, towards a social 

 ideal, by means of social sifting-organisations. Yet there are quaint 

 forms of social organisation on the instinctive line which command 

 admiration, though, for ethical reasons, Man cannot take any imita- 

 tive advantage of their subtlety. 



Organic evolution is a continuous natural process of racial change 



