148 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



to be the first of that new order of beings who by 

 their dominion over the lower world and their 

 equipment for a higher, reveal that they are made 

 in the Image of God — to be this is to be elevated 

 to a rank in Nature more exalted than any philo- 

 sophy or any poetry or any theology have ever given 

 to Man. Man was always told that his place was 

 high ; the reason for it he never knew till now ; he 

 never knew that his title deeds were the very laws 

 of Nature, that he alone was the Alpha and Omega 

 of Creation, the beginning and the end of Matter, 

 the final goal of Life. 



Nature is full of new departures ; but never since 

 time began was there anything approaching in im- 

 portance that period when the slumbering animal. 

 Brain, broke into intelligence, and the Creature first 

 felt that it had a Mind. From that dateless moment 

 a higher and swifter progress of the world began. 

 Henceforth, Intelligence triumphed over structural 

 adaptation. The wise were naturally selected before 

 the strong. The Mind discovered better methods, 

 safer measures, shorter cuts. So the body learned 

 to refer to it, then to defer to it. As the Mind 

 was given more to do, it enlarged and did its work 

 more perfectly. Gradually the favours of Evolution — 

 exercise, alteration, differentiation, addition — which 

 were formerly distributed promiscuously among the 



