^12 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



of operations similar to its own — not a unity which 

 consists in mere sameness of material, or in mere 

 identity of composition, or in mere uniformity of 

 structure ; but a unity which consists in the sub- 

 ordination of all these to similar aims, not to similar 

 principles of action — that is to say, in like methods 

 of yoking a few elementary forces to the discharge 

 of special functions, and to the production, by ad- 

 justment, of one harmonious whole."^ 



Yet did Sigillaria grow out of Stigmaria? Did 

 Mind, Morals, Men, evolve out of Matter? Surely 

 if one is the tree and the other the root of 

 that tree, and if Evolution means the passage of 

 the one into the other, there is no escape from 

 this conclusion — no escape therefore from the 

 crassest materialism ? If this is really the situ- 

 ation, the lower must then include the higher, and 

 Evolution, after all, be a process of the clay ? 

 This is a frequent, a natural, and a wholly unreflect- 

 ing inference from a very common way of stating 

 the Evolution theory. It arises from a total mis- 

 conception of what a root is. Because a thing is 

 seen to have roots, it is assumed that it has grown 

 out of these roots, and must therefore belong to the 

 root-order. But neither of these things is true in 

 Nature. Are the stem, branch, leaf, flower, fruit 

 * Duke of Argyll, The Unity of Nature^ p. 44. 



