338 THE ASCENT OF MA IV 



What comes " first " is not the criterion of what 

 comes last. Few things are more forgotten in 

 criticism of Evolution than that the nature of a 

 thing is not dependent on its origin, that one's 

 whole view of a long, growing, and culminating pro- 

 cess is not to be governed by the first sight the 

 microscope can catch of it. The processes of 

 Evolution evolve as well as the products ; evolve 

 with the products. In the Environments they help 

 to create, or to make available, they find a field for 

 new creations as well as further reinforcements for 

 themselves. With the creation of human children 

 Altruism found an area for its own expansion such 

 as had never before existed in the world. In this 

 new soil it grew from more to more, and reached 

 a potentiality which enabled it to burst the tram- 

 mels of physical conditions, and overflow the world 

 as a moral force. The mere fact that the first uses 

 of Love were physical shows how perfectly this 

 process bears the stamp of Evolution. The later 

 function is seen to relieve the earlier at the 

 moment when it would break down without it, 

 and continue the ascent without a pause. 



If it be hinted that Nature has succeeded in 

 continuing the Ascent of Life in Animals without 

 any reinforcement from psychical principles, the 

 first answer is that owing to physiological con- 



