ov till- Coming Civilization. 373 



the air, out of any visible or demonstrable relation with 

 observed forces and tendencies of ■whicli they may be re- 

 garded as the natural i)roduct. This is not a deat''. universe, 

 but a live one ; and it is moving with tremendous power in 

 certain definite directions. We can neither ignore this 

 movement nor oppose it. Our only hope is in co-operation 

 with it. If we are to build a paradise it miist be out of 

 existing materials and in accordance with the laws of forces 

 already at work. The first thing then for us to do is to 

 find out. if we can, which way the world is moving. If it 

 is already moving downward, growing to worse (as some 

 zealous reformers, like Tolstoi, assert), then we might as 

 well give up the unequal contest. The Infinite is some- 

 what larger than Ave are ; and I, for one, see no great hope 

 in fighting it. But if it is on an upward track, then we 

 may hopefully co-operate with it ; we may even hasten the 

 coming of better days. Indeed, in the light of intelligent 

 selection, we may attain results that otherwise would not 

 come to pass at all. But it can only be by co-working with 

 forces and tendencies inherent in the nature of things. 



I do not see how any intelligent believer in Evolution 

 can despair. But if he be an intelligent believer, he Avill 

 know^ that the first thing to be done is to find out which 

 way things are tending. Before he indulges too much in 

 dreaming, he will become a careful and reverent student of 

 the past. 



If one wishes to find out which w\iy a river is flowing, 

 and into what larger body of water it will probably empty, 

 he need not be able to find its fountain head, he need not 

 trace it clear to the mouth. It will be enough to follow a 

 large part of its main stream and to note the trend of the 

 great mountain-chains that define its valley. He will thus 

 be able to gain a scientific warrant for his opinion as to 

 which way it is going. So we may know enough of the 

 evolutionary stream to forecast its direction out yonder 

 under the cloud and mist that hide from us what we call 

 the future. Let us therefore now run over the main features 

 of the past evolution of life on our earth. 



We need not try to uncover the beginning. Start with 

 such horizontal forms of life as the worm and the fish. 

 Very simple nervous systems had they, and very small 

 brains. But embodied life begins to lift and climb. Through 

 reptile and bird and mammal and anthropoid ape it struggles 



