BIOLOGY IN ITS WIDER ASPECTS 1199 



applied to the origin of stellar systems from a nebula, to the differ- 

 entiation of different kinds of elements from protons and electrons, 

 to the succession of climates and scenery upon the earth, to the 

 evolution of mind, man, morals, religions, and societies; and to avoid 

 fallacy we have suggested that the term "evolution" should always 

 be prefixed by some adjective, like cosmic, chemical, organic, or 

 human, and so forth, for it is certainly not the same process through- 

 out. Yet there is a common idea at all levels — evolution is a process 

 of Continuous Natural Becoming in which the new emerges out of the 

 old under the operation of knowable factors. So we must not think 

 of the idea of Evolution as if it were simply a biological theory or 

 formula, for it is much more. It is a way of looking at things — the 

 scientific way of expressing how things have come to be as they 

 are. It has proved itself to be an indispensable organ on in thought, 

 and our point is that the idea is best illustrated in the realm of 

 organisms. Those who work with the idea will be saved from many 

 a pitfall, if they have first studied it deeply and patiently in its 

 Natural History expression. 



Charles Darwin was born on the same day and in the same 

 year as Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1809, and he resembled 

 Lincoln in working for freedom. Speaking of his first impression of 

 the Origin of Species, Sir Francis Gait on tells us that his dominant 

 feeling was one oi freedom. In what way was Darwin a great liberator ? 

 First, because he showed that some of the problems of origins, which 

 had been regarded as hopeless, were amenable to scientific treat- 

 ment. Second, because he won freedom for the application of the 

 evolution formula to man as well as to other creatures, and to 

 emotions as well as to motions. He was one of the foimders of genetic 

 psychology, which, though still young, is making for the increased 

 freedom of man's mind. We mean not only an intellectual freedom 

 from obscurities, but a practical freedom as well; for the more we 

 know of individual development and racial evolution, the more we 

 can control the future. The truth that is Darwinism shares with 

 all truth the power of setting us free. It is safe to say that the idea 

 of Evolution, best studied in connection with Natural History, has 

 done more than any other idea for the emancipation of man's mind. 



Another central idea in Natural History is the idea of inter- 

 relations in the web of life. The life-circle of one organism intersects 

 the circles of many other organisms of different kinds. This is a 

 central Darwinian idea, the correlation of organisms, seen by 

 Darwin more vividly than by any other naturalist before or since. 

 When it grips our mind it is an enrichment. What does the idea 

 imply ? It means that nothing lives or dies to itself. As John Locke 

 said, everything is a retainer to some other part of Nature. The 

 earthworms plough the fields and plant trees; the bees and the 

 flowers they visit are as hand and glove; the minnow nurses the 



