12 THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION 



remains that man is the highest expression of life upon this 

 globe, and that his mind is the highest expression of his 

 being. 1 What we know about the world is in our thought. 

 For us, then, human thought is the world ; but only for us. 

 Our mind is not co-extensive with the universe ; yet we 

 may reasonably infer from its presence in ourselves that there 

 is mind in the universe below us and above us. We are 

 compelled to hypothesise an Universal Mind because of the 

 manifest fact that we help to constitute the universe, which 

 was, and is, and will be before, around, and after our phe- 

 nomenal existence. Evolution, admitting no break of con- 

 tinuity in the universe, silently forces us to this conclusion ; 

 and it is only the attitude still maintained, in form at least, 

 by Christianity towards Nature, which prevents our recog- 

 nising the Spirit immanent and everywhere, 



VII 



After speaking of a cosmic mind, it is of much importance 

 to define what we mean by mind. To human beings mind 

 appears in the form of consciousness and thinking. Thought 

 is the highest manifestation of our consciousness, graduated 

 upwards from rudimentary sensitiveness and sensations, 

 through perceptions, instincts stereotyped in what may be 

 termed organic habits, states of memory, and so forth, into 

 its final ratiocinative stage. At that point it eludes our 

 observation, just as it eludes us, at the other end of the scale, 

 in stages where we are inclined to doubt the existence of 

 consciousness at all. We have sufficient proof that some of 

 our primitive sensibilities, the lowest chords of consciousness 

 in us, are shared by men with the coarsest types of animals, 

 and even with plants. Among these may be reckoned 

 muscular contractibility, and the faculty of alimentation. In 

 like manner, many of our perceptions, instincts, and rougher 



1 The argument might be condensed here into a single sentence : 

 ' The truth, however, remains that we are what we are through thought ; 

 and we may reasonably infer that this is not limited to our condition, 

 but that mind penetrates and animates all existence, forming the 

 essential part of that which was, and is, and is to be.' 



