WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT. 63 



sary principle of progress. Their functions each and all 

 may be defined as cosmic order. The law of gravita- 

 tion brings order in rest or motion. The laws of chemi- 

 cal affinity bring about molecular stability. Heredity 

 repeats strength or weakness, good or ill, with like in- 

 difference. The past will not let go of us; we can not 

 let go of the past. The law of mutual help brings the 

 perpetuation of weakness as well as the strength of co- 

 operation. Even the law of pity is pitiless, and the 

 law of mercy merciless. The nerves carry sensations of 

 pleasure or pain, themselves as indifferent as the tele- 

 graph wire which is man's invention to serve similar pur- 

 poses. Some men who call themselves pessimists because 

 they can not read good into the operations of Nature 

 forget that they can not read evil. 



For both good and evil belong to man's reaction 

 from the influences of environment. It is the growth of 

 love and wisdom through struggle and storm that makes 

 this world the abode of righteousness. It is the effort 

 of man that deifies Nature. It is this that raises the 

 process of evolution above the level of the multiplica- 

 tion table. It is this that makes the whole of Nature 

 greater than the sum of all her parts. 



In a different sense the word evolution is applied to 



the theory of the origin of organs and of species by 



divergence and development. This the- 



Evolution as a teaches that all forms of life now 



theory of organic . . . , , , . , 



development. existing or that have existed on the 

 earth have sprung from a common stock, 

 which has undergone change in a multitude of ways and 

 under varied conditions, the forces and influences pro- 

 ducing such change being known as the " factors of 

 organic evolution." All characters and attributes of 

 species and groups have developed with changing con- 

 ditions of life. The homologies among animals are the 

 6 



