12 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



of man. The latter is only the manifestation of the 

 action and intelligence of certain combinations of the 

 atom : for in the final analysis the brain of man, which 

 produces the reason, the memory, the imagination, is 

 only a very complex condensation of the original 

 center of motion called an atom of matter. It could be 

 called just as well an atom of mind, for it carries with 

 it, in all its combinations, the same tendencies, in poten- 

 tiality, that finally result in mental phenomena in the 

 brain of man. There is a oneness in all its combina- 

 tions. 



M. Henri Poincare, in a recent lecture stated that the 

 objective reality of the chemical atom is now beyond 

 dispute. Every atom is an individual to us, a closed 

 world, but, in fact, it is a universe of electrons, which 

 he compares to fixed stars and comets. 



The opposite of monism is dualism. The adherents 

 of the latter idea contend that there is a power outside 

 of the atom, who created the atom, and superintends 

 all its actions, and combinations : and that the mind of 

 man is a separate and distinct thing from the atom of 

 matter. That is, that there are two principles in nature, 

 the one natural, and the other supernatural. 



HUMANISM. However, no view, of evolution, can be 

 taken, that is of any use to human reason, that does not 

 include the value it has to humanity. It must be an 

 every day working hypothesis, the truth of which con- 

 sists, in the way it works for man. It must have a prag- 

 matic value. "We are not the reality, but its manifesta- 

 tion. It is well, that our daily attention is directed not 

 to the primary movement of atoms in themselves, but to 

 their end, with reference to human problems. "We could 

 not spend the time necessary, in contemplating the 

 minute and complex movements of so simple an act as 



