i62 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



fact that what that ear hears, it hears as music; 

 that it hears at all ; that it knows that it hears. 

 Man differs from every other product of the 

 evolutionary process in being able to see that it 

 is a process, in sharing and rejoicing in its unity, 

 and in voluntarily working through the process 

 himself. If he is part of it he is also more than 

 part of it, since he is at once its spectator, its 

 director, and its critic. " Even on the hypothesis 

 of a psychic life in all matter we come to an 

 alteration indeed, but not an abolition, of the 

 contrast between body and soul. Of course on 

 that hypothesis they are distinguished by no 

 qualitative difference in their natures, but still 

 less do they blend into one ; the one individual 

 ruling soul always remains facing, in an attitude 

 of complete isolation, the homogeneous but minis- 

 trant monads, the joint multitude of which forms 

 the living body." ^ 



With these preliminary cautions, let us turn for 

 a little to the facts. The field here is so full of 

 interest in itself that apart from its forming a 

 possible chapter in the history of Man it is worth 

 a casual survey. 



The difficulty of establishing even the general 

 (question of Ascent is of course obvious. After 

 * Lotze, Mkrgcpsmus^ p. 162. 



