Evolution of Sorief//. 209 



by prosperity and well-being in contemporaneous and asso- 

 ciated individual and societary vegetal and brute-animal 

 life ; and experience confirms the expectation, as well as the 

 converse proposition. 



In this connection, it is interesting to observe the differ- 

 ence between the wisdom of the early writer or writers of 

 the account of creation already referred to, and the modern 

 interpreters of it. Thorns and thistles are the direct result 

 of imperfect vegetal development ; and they are evidently 

 recognized by the former as related to human degradation, 

 and to the evil that degradation produces, even in its effects 

 upon the ground on which the •' fallen " man treads. And 

 to one who has noted how serpents disappear before an ad- 

 vancing society, and how they reappear in the track of a 

 declining society, the connection of the " fall of man " with 

 the serpent seems by no means entirely fancifiil. 



Everywhere, among all forms of life, associated action 

 among individuals of the same species, seems to have for 

 its initial motive the principle and function of sex and the 

 continuation of the species, Avith protection and safety as a 

 near object, extending later on into various lines and 

 methods of improvement, or progress toward an ideal i)er- 

 fection, accompanied from stage to stage, or in gradation, 

 by a tendency toward diminished reproductive energy, as pro- 

 tection from enemies and prolongation of life are obtained. 

 In vegetal life tlie full l)lown rose may be taken as a sam- 

 ple of that perfection ; the perfection consisting in a gradual 

 elimination of the reproductive organs and functions by 

 their substitution or translation into the beautiful petalif- 

 erous forms that compose its glory. In this stage the re- 

 productive function is wanting, and the life of the same 

 individual plant is continued and multiplied by the sli})piiig 

 process, instituted by the gardener. 



It may be said, in passing, that a similar course or stage 

 in the develo])ment of human life would be re])resented by 

 an approach toward a condition of individual immortality, 

 the ultimate condition being one in which the reproductive 

 function would not only be wanting, but would be unneces- 

 sary, and in which all the highest jiossibilities of the human 

 mind and soul would be in the most perfect state of efflo- 

 rescence, and when man would have become a fit companion 

 for the Angels. 



While there may be no immediate call for alarm lest this 



