"tHE LOGIC OF EVOLVriON 79 



moral development has kept pace with his intellectual is, we 

 hope, an open question. 



As every higher power was needed for the complete use 

 and development of the lower, the sequence of dynasties was 

 quite natural and logical. The higher ought and had to arise 

 except where there was arrest or failure of development. The 

 only logical goal of even zoophytic development was mind, 

 and the worm foreshadowed the coming of man. All these 

 powers are potentially in the amoeba, and his potentialities, 

 not his attainments, are his best assets and highest values. 

 Their worth can be determined only when they are unfolded 

 or actually realized. The lower stage is incomplete, conceals 

 far more than it reveals. It can be appreciated and properly 

 valued only in the light of the higher, which reveals its mean- 

 ing and to which it is a stepping-stone. " Origins prove noth- 

 ing," as William James said. The finished statue, not the 

 rough-hewn block tells the story. 



The lower organ or function once firmly established and 

 supreme in the body does not readily and easily yield its 

 control and gracefully abdicate in favor of the higher power 

 of greater possibilities. There is always a struggle for su- 

 premacy between the lower and older, and the younger and 

 better. The final revolution succeeds only in the face 

 of bitter opposition. The struggle is anything but brief, we 

 always ought to carry all the good, we must carry much that 

 must be outgrown, into the future. The old dynasty must not 

 be banished as a whole but assimilated in due subordination 

 to the higher. Here is the rub. Hence many or most fail 

 altogether to attempt the revolution; never break loose from 

 the old, outworn, motives, habits and modes of life; remain 

 permanently on the lower plane. 



Man and animals can at least attempt to reverse this nat- 

 ural and logical sequence of dominant functions, and exploit 

 in the service of the lower whatever of the higher has been 

 attained by their progressive ancestors. The free-moving 

 form can become sessile or parasitic. This spells degenera- 

 tion of all organs, except the reproductive, or more usually 



