100 "fHE COMING OF MAN 



structor has wrought much ruin in the world, as Homo sapiens 

 he may help to restore and transfigure it. The relation of 

 animal to animal and of man to man, a relation continually 

 changing, is the most important element in biological history. 



The first step in conformity is discovery.^ When we dis- 

 cover an object, we bring it into relation to our sense-organs 

 or mind. We focus our attention upon it and discover new 

 possible relations which may satisfy some pressing need. 

 Then we proceed to experiment, and frame and establish some 

 new relation; and we may call this an invention. 



The amoeba is always groping in the surrounding water. 

 It is remarkable how early the animal began to develop sense- 

 organs. The higher worms possess them all, though crude and 

 incompletely developed. The ear starts as an organ for feel- 

 ing vibrations in the water, and ends as an open doorway for 

 the entrance of all the highest and finest, as well as lower, 

 sentiments and appeals. We can take heed how and what we 

 hear. The eye, at first a mere light-perceiving speck, aids 

 in perceiving the direction of the source of light, and ends 

 by forming images of surrounding objects. Imagine the furor 

 in some learned society of annehds, when Alciope announced 

 and maintained that he could see and distinguish the form of 

 an object almost an inch distant. And these sense-organs 

 stimulate and develop the brain, until it — or the immanent 

 mind — becomes a sense-organ itself discovering values and 

 ideals, beauty, truth, goodness and God; all of which he has 

 discovered, none of which he could make. They make him, 

 if he so wills or allows. These are all in the margin of his 

 environment as soon as discovered. What and how close his 

 relation is to be to any or all of these, seems to be left to him. 

 We are apt to forget how large a part discovery plays in evo- 

 lution. Man combines and relates the results of his dis- 

 coveries; he makes comparatively little. All his so-called 

 laws are expressions or descriptions of objects and relations 

 which he has discovered.^ 



2T. 41. 

 2 1 :229. 



