20 A THEOKY OF LIFE DEDUCED 



remains. From these sources we learn that the earth 

 is many millions of years old, that two or three thousand 

 centuries separate the man of to-day from his primitive 

 ancestors,, and that all life, vegetable, animal, and 

 human, has been brought to its present state through a long- 

 continued process of evolution. Furthermore, there is every 

 reason to believe, from the evidence past and present, in 

 the further working of these evolutionary forces to the end 

 of bringing all things into higher and wider harmony. 

 Ignoring now such aspects of the past, present, and future 

 as do not directly concern the welfare of the human race, 

 for it would occupy too much space to attempt to exhaust 

 the subject even in outline let us inquire what is the 

 meaning of social evolution. Pause for a moment and look 

 back into the far past. Now glance around you to-day, and 

 you will see that social evolution aims at establishing 

 perfect peace between man and man, aims at uniting man- 

 kind in complete harmony. From a past state of chronic 

 hostility on to the present predominantly peaceful state, to 

 the ideal society of perfect peace such is the unmistakable 

 trend of social evolution. Nolens xolens we are being- 

 impelled onward to this goal. There is a power over 

 which each individual has but a limited control slowly 

 making for the realization of all those possibilities that are 

 bound up with a complete eradication of men's aggressive 

 instincts. 



What, now, is the practical import of this fact ? What 

 reasons are there for rejoicing over it ? Why help along 

 these social forces why not use what power we have to 

 resist them ? Let us see. Given a globe, and given a 

 number of people to populate that globe, there can be, 

 broadly speaking, but three possible modes of associated 

 life. Either the inhabitants must assume an attitude of 



