26 THE BIOCOSMOS GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



kind of organic ladder from bottom to top. 

 But we have to inquire after this formative 

 energy which is pre-supposed in Evolution: 

 What is it and whence comes it * What could 

 have set it going and have imparted to it the 

 general tendency to rise in the scale of excel- 

 lence? Evolution does not answer such a 

 problem; it simply assumes the given prin- 

 ciple and points out its transformations. Ac- 

 cordingly something lies back of Evolution, 

 propelling it onward, and for the most part 

 upward. Darwin in spite of himself, at times 

 even under his spoken protest, introduces 

 such a power, usually by the name of Nature 

 or Natural Selection. Evolution, therefore, 

 cannot completely evolve itself, it has to in- 

 voke an energy outside itself to make a start, 

 and to drive it on. When it has evolved itself 

 entirely and universally, it must have evolved 

 its pre-supposition, that which originates and 

 performs its process. Evolution thus shows 

 itself but a part or phase of a greater move- 

 ment; through its own inner dialectic it calls 

 for the completion of itself. When Evolution 

 reaches the end which returns to and makes 

 the beginning, when it has evolved the prin- 

 ciple which starts it and propels it, the as- 

 cending evolutionary line is transcended, and 

 rounds itself out into a cycle. What is it that 

 has this self-returning power? 



