THE EVOLUTION IDEA 117 



various grades of development, the liuman soul rises 

 from the level of the instincts which it shares with 

 animals to the "acquired intellect," wherein it frees 

 itself more and more from the material and the po- 

 tential. The "acquired intellect" is only an elimina- 

 tion of the "active intellect," or the Godhead, and 

 thereby it is possible to identify in the last stage of 

 recognition the subject with the object, the thought 

 with the existence. 



Avempace, as he was known in Europe, died 

 in 1138. He was succeeded by Abubacer (Ibn- 

 Tophail), who died in 1185. 



Abubacer was also a poet, and he handled an 

 analogous theme in an Oriental romance upon 

 the birth of the * Nature-man' : 



There happens to be under the equator an island, 

 where Man comes into the world without father or 

 mother ; by spontaneous generation he arises, directly 

 in the form of a boy, from the earth, while the spirit, 

 which, like the sunshine, emanated from God, unites 

 with the body, growing out of a soft, unformed mass. 

 Without any intelligent surroundings, and without 

 education, this "Nature-man," through simple ob- 

 servation of the outer world, and through the combi- 

 nation of various appearances, rises to the knowledge 

 of the world and of the Godhead. First he perceives 

 the individuals, and then he recognizes the various 

 species as independent forms ; but as he compares the 

 varieties and species with each other, he comes to the 

 conclusion that they are all sprung from a single ani- 



