282 EVOLUTION 



evolution must be in its own terms, oi 

 function and form, and free therefore from 

 absorption into the lower physical order, as 

 from exaggeration into the higher ethical and 

 political one. The latter mode of state- 

 ment is the transcendentalisms old-fashioned 

 fable ; the former is a materialistic fable. 

 But to correlate and parallelize the biological 

 with the physical order, as with the social, 

 whenever we can : that is a different matter. 

 Above all, however, let us as naturalists 

 see that we grasp not only the mechanical 

 and urban point of view but the rustic and 

 physiological one. 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE EVOLUTION PROCESS ONCE MORE 

 REINTERPRETED 



The evolution process again reinterpreted Antithesis 

 of vegetation and reproduction ; applications in the 

 plant world Justification from rustic experience 

 Evolution in the animal kingdom Summary and 

 conclusions. 



THOUGH we must leave that rich mastery 

 of the evolution secret we once hoped for to 

 the successors we would fain send out so much 

 better equipped, can we not meantime be 

 going at least a step or two farther before we 



