THE ARTS AND RELIGION 253 



presses the felt-like interaction of environmental 

 forces with the forces pertaining to organized proto- 

 plasm. That such an hypothesis must at present 

 content itself with supports mainly of a very general 

 character is only a form of admission that we are 

 still profoundly ignorant of the subtle processes that 

 hold sway in the substance of the nervous mechanism. 

 The progress of investigation can be counted on to do 

 something toward making this extreme materialistic 

 or mechanical hypothesis either more reasonably 

 tenable than now or less so. It is put forward here 

 because it appears to me more legitimate at present 

 than any other, and better adapted to stimulate 

 research and to promote kindly human relations. 



What most deeply interests the student of human 

 affairs is to gain some vantage ground, or point of 

 view, from which he may venture to predict the 

 tendencies of human development. Is the race to 

 improve, according to our present-day best standards 

 of what is desirable, or is it to degenerate ? Or will 

 it improve in some directions and deteriorate in 

 others ? What would we not give for a glimpse into 

 the future which should give us substantial knowl- 

 edge of the outcome ? As it is, we are constrained, 

 with limited and halting powers of imagination, to 

 picture the future with the help of grossly imperfect 

 knowledge of present conditions, and an even more 

 inadequate understanding of the past. 



From the standpoint of our mechanistic conception 

 the future of any race will express the behavior or 



