252 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



from its primeval state, cycles of ages before the 

 differentiation of man, onward until now. If this 

 be not materialism, it at any rate ascribes all that is 

 distinctive in intelligence to the physical forces oper- 

 ating in the environment. Man's mind is on the 

 hypothesis as necessarily shaped in the mould of 

 physical nature as is the rounded pebble on the beach. 

 Note the consequences that inevitably follow. The 

 innate principles that lie at the basis of all reasoning 

 are not on this theory to be accounted universal and 

 necessary, truths. They are, in the narrowest sense, 

 relative. They are functions of the organism, and 

 hold good only in the relations of that organism and 

 its environment. Carried beyond the environment 

 that has shaped them, they are inapplicable and in- 

 valid. If the brain has been envolved through 

 physical causes only, then the evolved product has only 

 physical correlations. Its intuitions are limited to the 

 physical : they have no wider validity or meaning. 

 Besides, the adjustment of organism and environment 

 has been a constant process of equilibration, and is not 

 at any two points in time exactly alike. The adjust- 

 ments of the past are not precisely congruous with 

 the conditions of to-day. The congruity between the 

 organized forms of thought and the environment, 

 continues constant only through the continued har- 

 monious changing of both. No doubt some elements 

 are comparatively stable : still the present adaptation 

 cannot be taken as the measure of the past or as a 



