48 ESSAYS LV PHILOSOPHY 



Evolution itself, then, and not evolutional philoso- 

 phy merely, in finding in this rational nature of every 

 mind its proximate source and footing, finds there 

 its Final Limit. 



VI 



We have here reached the proof that what is most 

 distinctively meant by Man is not, and cannot be, the 

 result of evolution. Man the spirit, man the real 

 mind, is not the offspring of Nature, but rather Na- 

 ture is in a great sense the offspring of this true 

 Human Nature. As we have seen, the only thing 

 that can overspan all the breaks which evolution must 

 pass if it is to be a cosmic principle, is idealising 

 thought — the humane nature, in its highest, largest 

 sense. It is this that adds in to the chaotic insignifi- 

 cance of the mere mass of things the lofty theme of 

 ever-ascending Progress. Apart from this ideality, 

 there would be no cosmic order at all, no Manward 

 Procession. Yet, that the whole of Nature cannot be 

 referred to men alone, or to other conscious beings 

 directly on the scene of Nature ; that the existence 

 of an absolutely universal form of their nature is 

 required for her cosmic being, — this will not be de- 

 nied when our psychology is as exact and all-recog- 

 nising as it should be. Such a psychology will dis- 

 cover within the complex of experience, human or 

 other, in addition to the system of a priori elements 



